Heterogeneous photocatalysis has proved to be a useful tool for the degradation of water pollutants as it can be observed by the high number of references appeared the last 30 years. Despite this strong research, some points, as more satisfactory and accurate kinetic models, still have to be more developed. In this work, as reaction model, the photocatalytic treatment of 2,4-dichlorophenol has been studied by using TiO2 in suspension as catalyst. The influence of different variables (TiO2 concentration, pH effect, radiation) on the reaction rate has been tested. Afterwards, two new kinetic models are proposed. The first one takes into account the effect of intermediates in the degradation rate of the parent pollutant, which allows a better agreement for long time reactions. The second one attempts to include the radiation effect into the kinetic expression by means of a new term which refers to the absorbed light by the photocatalyst. Both models fit quite well with the experimental data and seem to be interesting future tools for the comparison and scaling-up of different photocatalytic systems. © 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.